Yay for the new year! Which just means a new year of more movies, more books and more fun.
So to cap off 2014 I figured I should rank all the movies I've seen this year. I've ranked every single film of 2014 I've seen (that I remember), AND I've linked each film to the blog post with my review of that movie. Note: older posts for some reason don't have the pictures showing and I don't know how to fix this.
Also if you are wondering, the way I did this was mainly just asking myself, "Given the option of two movies, which would I want to see more?" Of course that doesn't apply to all of them, as I still took into account the factors of acting, plot, entertaining, and even bias.
Anyway here goes:
Best Movies of 2014 (according to me):
1. Gone Girl
Click for description:The plot was cray, the suspense was killer, and the actors were amazing. Rosamund Pike for the Oscar!
2. X-Men: Days of Future Past
Click for description:My love for time travel, X-Men, superheroes, and the cast puts this in my top three.
3. Predestination (review coming soon)
Click for description:One of THE BEST time travel films I have ever seen (I'm tossing it up with Back to the Future)! The opening scenes are exciting and futuristic, the middle of the film is extremely intriguing, and the ending is a masterpiece. I love the concept of time travel and all the theories that accompany it, so I was super happy that they handled it really well in this film.
4. Birdman
Click for description:A great and wholly self-aware film that entertains right from the erratic introduction of the opening credits. Michael Keaton is great in this, as well as the supporting cast, but the entire film looking like it was done in one take is simply stunning! This film is funny, it's deep, and it's damn artistic.
5. The Theory of Everything
Click for description:A truly incredible film about the life of Jane and Stephen Hawking. It was touching, it was beautiful, and it was inspiring. Eddie Redmayne well deserved the Oscar for this, no matter what you want to tell me about how good Michael Keaton was in Birdman. All the performances were amazing, and I was sobbing by the end of the film.
6. The Imitation Game
Click for description:A great true (or maybe not) story about the life of Alan Turing, computer genius who helped the Allies win World War II by creating a machine to crack the uncrackable Enigma. Benedict Cumberbatch does not fail to impress in this drama, but of the Oscar nominees I think this was one of the weaker ones (although maybe I'm just biased because I'm too annoyed that it isn't truly "based on a true story")
7. Interstellar
Click for description:A great film on humanity's inherent desire for survival, with an unorthodox love story thrown in as a driving force. An amazing film with the only faults being a very long run time, as well as some minor (but very loud nonetheless) plot holes and confusions.
8. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Click for description:Plot twists, spins, and more plot twists. The complexity and surprise factors made it stand out.
9. Grand Budapest Hotel
Click for description:Wes Anderson is amazing. No one can deny that after watching 100 minutes of this quirky, fast paced, bizarre and stylistic film that puts it in the top 5.
10. Edge of Tomorrow
Click for description:A good movie with Tom Cruise is a rarity, but he took hold of this movie with such power that it definitely stood out. While the ending was a bit confusing, the whole build up was fascinating.
11. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Click for description:Captain America is redeemed and more in this stand-out Marvel film that makes you eager for the next.
12. Nightcrawler (review coming soon)
Click for description:A great and really disturbing film about knowing (or rather, not knowing) the boundaries between being an observer and a participant in crime, through the story of a crime scene photographer. Jake Gyllenhaal's performance and appearance is perfection in this, but the film suffers from slow pacing and some dragged out scenes.
13. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1
Click for description:A bit slow, a bit long and maybe even a bit unnecessary, this film was great in showing the damages of war on your mental state. But of course bias feeds into this rating, as my love for The Hunger Games and Jennifer Lawrence will never be quashed.
14. Guardians of the Galaxy
Click for description:A surprisingly good film, that gets better the more you reflect on it. While humour is central, the characters are interesting and the plot was better than I expected it to be.
15. Boyhood
Click for description:This film is definitely worthy of mention. Even if I didn't love it, it definitely was a film worthy of your (nearly) 3 hours. The uniqueness of Richard Linklater's latest project continually engages you as you watch this little six year old boy grow up to be your age, hitting a sensitive nerve and resonating with your own personal life. The moment seizes us indeed.
16. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Click for description:Peter Jackson sure left the best for last. As I am reminded of his amazingness at creating epic Middle Earth battle films, sensitive nerves are once again struck as nostalgia floods you to your core. Definitely the best of the Hobbit movies, and whilst still a shadow to its Lord of the Rings parent, it was a good end to the reign of Middle Earth films.
17. Fury
Click for description:A good film focusing on the brotherhood that can develop between a group of men fighting in the war. War scenes are intense, and performances are good. The film isn't outstanding, but it certainly is a good film.
18. Into the Woods
Click for description:A fun, exciting musical with a stellar cast. Intertwining all our favourite classic fairytales, the film sure is entertaining. The only issue is that the second half of the film noticeably worsens and does not live up to the greatness of the first half.
19. How to Train your Dragon 2
Click for description:Directing sequels is much alike to walking on thin ice, but this sequel definitely had a good shot at it. Whilst not as great as the first film, it was cute, it was emotional, and it added new and interesting plot elements that made it worth the watch.
20. Noah
Click for description:The controversial adaptation of the well-known biblical story makes you question humanity as a source of knowledge, as your eyes are opened to the flaws of man. If you forget it's a biblical story and go in with an open mind, it's pretty enjoyable.
21. Before I Go to Sleep (review coming soon)
Click for description:An intriguing premise for a film, but nothing we haven't seen before (c.f. 50 First Dates, Memento). Nicole Kidman is obviously going to give a good performance, as is Colin Firth. The film is intriguing and intense, with an interesting plot twist you don't see coming.
22. 300: Rise of an Empire
Click for description:A must see for just cool slow-mo action sequences and interesting modern spins on ancient Greek stories, this film's gritty imagery may not be as good as the original 300, but it was still pretty intriguing.
23. American Sniper
Click for description:Ahhhhh I didn't understand the hype on this film! Sure it was a decent film in that Bradley Cooper's performance was great and the war scenes were intense, but it was pretty boring for me! It didn't entertain me at all and I actually got so bored and wanted to sleep. The repetitive nature of the movie (goes to war, snipes like cray cray, goes home, doesn't fit in, goes back to war, etc. etc.) becomes tiresome, and this film isn't even the first to deal with post-war depression and trauma.
24. The LEGO Movie
Click for description:The only reason I watched this was because of LEGO. It was pretty amazingly done, but the first part of the movie was absolutely unbearable. The constant bombardment of weird and dry humour made me uneasy, but at least it made the second half seem a lot better. The last bit as well was, while still funny, seem a bit weird, but definitely not as weird as the beginning.
25. The Amazing Spiderman 2: Rise of Electro
Click for description:This movie was... a shame. The villains weren't executed well enough, Spiderman's arrogance was so overwhelming, and the plot just wasn't that great.
26. Divergent
Click for description:I don't know how a non-reader could have watched this. I was quite surprised at how they did this, because the directing wasn't what I expected it to be. Whilst the novels weren't strong anyway, the film lacks any real conviction in its characters and plot. Also, watching the Insurgent trailer and how much they changed to make it look dramatic makes this movie seem even worse.
27. The Fault in Our Stars
Click for description:This was a shame because the book was quite good, but I think that this story is just something that's better when reading. In the film you have no idea what she's thinking because there's no sense of explaining her thoughts or emotions, whether in dialogue or in voice-over. Further, the characters are pretty annoying. When reading, it was okay, but still annoying because the main guy seemed so pretentious. However in the film, this level of pretentiousness was just magnified and really bothered me.
28. Godzilla
Click for description:This movie was so hyped up, and I fully expected amazing stuff from Bryan Cranston, but this film just DID NOT deliver. There was almost no needs to put any human actors in this, and there was also no need to really make a film on Godzilla if you barely included it/him in the actual movie.
29. Transformers: Age of Extinction
Click for description:I'm probably not entitled to an opinion on this film because I slept halfway through it, but it was really weird. Mark Wahlberg just felt weird in this role, the humour was not up to standard, and I didn't know what was going on. By the way, I have problems sleeping, so being able to sleep through all the noise of this movie is really something.
Yes, those are all the movies of 2014 I have watched, but I've also got a list of movies that I wanted to watch this year, but didn't get around to doing so (and as I watch them I will continue updating this list hopefully):
• Anchorman 2
• Bad Neighbours
• 22 Jump street
• Horrible Bosses 2
• Serena
• Exodus: Gods and Kings
• Whiplash
And I've got the movies that I wanted to see but were apparently terrible:
• Maleficent
• Transcendence
• Sin City 2
• A Million Ways to Die in the West
• Exodus: Gods and Kings (yes, it doubles up because I was super keen on watching it but then everyone said it was really terrible so I didn't, but I still want to watch it - just at home or something rather than at the cinema)
And because I don't want to end on a bad note, here are some 2015 movies off the top of my head that I'm looking forward to!
• Avengers: Age of Ultron
• Pitch Perfect 2
• The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2
• Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens
• Insurgent
• Cinderella
Here's to a good year!
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